July, 2013 - ZE DataWatch by ZE PowerGroup powered by ZEMA ...

July 2013Editor’s LetterRiding The California Emissions Reduction WaveRecently, my attention has been drawn to California. Yet again, this Western state is pushing the boundaries of conventional viewsand stale ideas. This particular development has been somewhat expected since the early days of Arnold Schwarzenegger’sgoverning of California and his solid determination to terminate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. He turned the Golden State into aflagship state fighting against global climate changes, which started the rising wave of green energy and emission reduction. Thiswave spilled over into its neighboring states and spread throughout the whole nation. In some states, it solidified and enhancedalready existing trends; in others, it spawned completely new programs and undertakings.Ever since the rise of the green and clean California wave, which happened during 2004 and 2005, the U.S. was swept up to theedge of a few major shake-ups, including a tentative introduction to nation-wide GHG reduction policies and renewable portfoliostandards. We are facing the swell of this wave again.Before we get into the modern day tsunami of emission reductions, let’s take a look at the American birthplace of the originalhipster (or “hippie”) movement, the California Power Exchange, the Western U.S., Energy Crisis, Million Solar Roofs Program, andmany other exciting and not-so-cheap developments. What can we look forward to? Maybe how to ease the integration of all thosegreen and clean power generators into the grid? California’s got smart meters to adjust consumer behavior, the vehicle–to–gridproject to use cars as batteries on wheels, and energy storage auctions to start in 2014. And now there is something else arisingfrom outside the borders of CaISO: Energy Imbalanced Market (EIM).PacifiCorp is the first entity to jump on the ISO proposal to expand five-minute balancing to its neighboring balancing authorities.With CaISO’s EIM software, PacifiCorp automatically will dispatch imbalanced energy from generators on a least-cost dispatchalgorithm basis starting October 2014. The new service (which was approved by FERC on July 3, 2013) will complement PacifiCorp’sexisting participation in the CaISO’s hour-ahead and day-ahead markets.I see that well-established bilateral Western markets operating all nice and comfortably, tucked up in a cozy blanket of gigantichydropower resources, are facing a serious challenge. CaISO already offers an option to schedule interties on a 15-minute basis andnow this – five-minute scheduling for the non-participating entities.Here are my speculations (just because that’s what I like to do the most) about what we can expect in the future:- More utilities will join the PacifiCorp/CaISO EIM suite- The current project is limited only to the EIM services; however, more products (especially those related to renewablegeneration integration) are likely to be introduced by the ISO and offered to local utilities participants (and, those will belikely accepted because balancing renewable generation gets easier as the diversity and depth of generation portfolioincreases)- More utilities will ultimately join CaISO’s participating entities list- The number of pricing points will increase dramatically and somebody will have to help with managing all that volume ofdata (the ZEMA Suite of data management software is an excellent option)What I probably find the most interesting to speculate about is the potential creation of an organized West coast market. A vision oforganizing this market has been explored by the regional entities for more than a decade. And now, attempts to create this market,which have failed miserably multiple times previously, might just come alive after all.The region might just finally face a serious shake-up, a shake-up from the renewable generation growth, a growth with the roots inthe sunny Golden State. It won’t come cheap though, but what has ever come cheap that started brewing in California?Olga GorstenkoEditorOlga GorstenkoPhone: 778-296-4183Email: olga@ze.comAdvertising & Vendor RelationshipsBruce ColquhounPhone: 604-790-3299Email: bruce.c@ze.comZEMA Suite InquiriesBruce ColquhounPhone: 604-790-3299Email: bruce.c@ze.comHave an idea for an article or would like to contribute to an upcoming issue?4 Back to SummaryWrite to us at datawatch@ze.com. To access previous issues of ZE DataWatch, go to datawatch.ze.com